It is important that we hear your views regarding the service you receive as this helps us to identify areas where we can improve.

Your compliments help us to know that you are happy with the services you receive and help us work towards ‘right first time’ for you.

If we have made a mistake or if you have a concern regarding our service, we want to know, your opinion is valuable to us because it will help us to learn how we can do things better.

We have a complaints procedure and encourage your feedback. You can complain in any way - by email, in person, by telephone or letter.

We will acknowledge your complaint within two working days of receipt, also confirming the course of action we will take and inform you of who the investigating officer will be.

We will also inform you of the proposed resolution date or at least when we will respond to you, which will normally be within 10 working days. If you are not happy with the outcome, we will advise you of the next stage within the process.

Once you are happy with the outcome, we will send you a letter closing the complaint and ask for your feedback on how we dealt with it.

We are committed to handling complaints in an open and transparent way so our customers trust us to acknowledge when we get things wrong and take steps to resolve them. If you have concerns, we ask that you let us know so we have the chance to get things right.

If you receive a care service from us that is regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), you have the right to contact CQC. Although CQC will not investigate individual complaints, they will use the feedback to link into how they monitor and inspect our services.

CQC National Customer Service CentreCitygateGallowgateNewcastle upon TyneNE1 4PA